Great Violinists And Pianists eBook

Among the romantic incidents narrated of this visit
of Gottschalk to Madrid, one is too characteristic
to be overlooked, as showing the tender, generous
nature of the artist. An imaginative Spanish girl,
whose fancy had been excited by the public enthusiasm
about Gottschalk, but was too ill to attend his concerts,
had a passionate desire to hear him play, and pined
away in the fret-fulness of ungratified desire.
Her family were not able to pay Gottschalk for the
trouble of giving such an exclusive concert, but,
to satisfy the sick girl, made the circumstances known
to the artist. Gottschalk did not hesitate a moment,
but ordered his piano to be conveyed to the humble
abode of the patient. Here by her bedside he
played for hours to the enraptured girl, and the strain
of emotion was so great that her life ebbed away before
he had finished the final chords. Gottschalk
remained in Spain for two years, and it was not till
the autumn of 1852 that he returned to Paris, to give
a series of farewell concerts before returning again
to America, where his father and brothers were anxiously
awaiting him.

IV.

Before Gottschalk’s departure from Paris, Hector
Berlioz thus wrote of his protege, for whom
we may fancy he had a strong bias of liking; and no
judge is so generous in estimation as one artist of
another, unless the critic has personal cause of dislike,
and then no judge is so sweepingly unjust: “Gottschalk
is one of the very small number who possess all the
different elements of a consummate pianist, all the
faculties which surround him with an irresistible prestige,
and give him a sovereign power. He is an accomplished
musician; he knows just how far fancy may be indulged
in expression. He knows the limits beyond which
any freedom taken with the rhythm produces only confusion
and disorder, and upon these limits he never encroaches.
There is an exquisite grace in his manner of phrasing
sweet melodies and throwing off light touches from
the higher keys. The boldness, brilliancy, and
originality of his play at once dazzle and astonish,
and the infantile naivete of his smiling caprices,
the charming simplicity with which he renders simple
things, seem to belong to another individuality, distinct
from that which marks his thundering energy.
Thus the success of M. Gottschalk before an audience
of musical cultivation is immense.”

But even this enthusiastic praise was pale in comparison
with the eulogiums of some of the New York journals,
after the first concert of Gottschalk at Niblo’s
Garden Theatre. One newspaper, which arrogated
special strength and good judgment in its critical
departments, intimated that after such a revelation
it was useless any longer to speak of Beethoven!
Whether Beethoven as a player or Beethoven as a composer
was meant was left unknown. Gottschalk at his
earlier concerts played many of his own compositions,
made to order for the display of his virtuosoism,
and their brilliant, showy style was very well calculated
to arouse the enthusiasm of the general public.
Perhaps the most sound and thoughtful opinion of Gottschalk
expressed during the first enthusiasm created by his
playing was that of a well-known musical journal published
in Boston: